NEW YORK – Though the Twins on Wednesday, April 18, designated one of their utility infielders for release, fans clamoring for Brian Dozier shouldn’t get their hopes up.

Dozier, 24, was the franchise’s minor league player of the year in 2011 and impressed manager Ron Gardenhire during spring training, his second on the big-league side. Since being cut on the second-to-last day of camp, the shortstop has hit .340 (17 for 50) with a .411 on-base percentage, five doubles and six runs batted in in his first season with Class AAA Rochester.

With the Twins sitting at 4-8 before their game at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, some fans believe it’s time to give Dozier his first major league call-up.

“Well,” said Gardenhire, “you can blog them that Dozier’s having problems coming in on ground balls, getting slow rollers and getting people out. I read that in my reports. So that’s something to work on – if you’re looking for stuff to work on.”

The bigger issue is that the Twins have solid middle infielders in Jamey Carroll and Alexi Casilla. Carroll was signed to a two-year deal this winter, and Dozier is being prepped as a starting shortstop, not a utility infielder. And though Dozier is hitting well with the Red Wings, this is his first taste of Class AAA pitching.

Barring an injury, it appears Dozier will be in Rochester for a while longer.

“Dozier’s there to get at-bats, and he’s not going to come up here and sit on the bench and not play,” Gardenhire said. “If Dozier comes up here, he’s going in that Top 9, and we’re not ready to go into the Top 9 yet with Mr. Dozier. He’s doing fine, but he has stuff to work on, believe me. He’ll be just fine down there.”

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in Sports

The Twins and the cash-strapped Tampa Bay Rays had plenty of trade conversations throughout the offseason. Saturday evening, all those cell minutes and text messages finally bore fruit. Right-hander Jake Odorizzi, who turns 28 just before Opening Day, will make the short drive from Port Charlotte, Fla., to Fort Myers to join his new team. In exchange for Odorizzi, who...

With only 20 minutes separating the Wild from building a three-point cushion over the Ducks for the final spot in the Western Conference playoff race, they let the lead slip away and ultimately fell 3-2 to on the heels of the longest shootout in franchise history. After 11 rounds and 22 shooters, Ducks winger Nick Ritchie finally beat Devan Dubnyk...

The Gophers men’s hockey team settled for a 1-1 tie with Ohio State on Saturday at 3M Arena at Mariucci but moved within one point of clinching home ice for the first round of the Big Ten tournament. Mat Robson stopped 38 of 39 shots he faced for Minnesota (19-13-2, 10-10-2-1), which is unbeaten in its past four games. After...

Karl-Anthony Towns was the toast of the NBA during his rookie season. The revolutionary big man was the unanimous choice for the league’s Rookie of the Year award after capturing all six Western Conference Rookie of the Month awards during the season. Surely, he was on the path to becoming one of the league’s next great players. These were the...

The matchups for the 2018 Minnesota high school girls hockey state tournament are set. Defending champion Edina earned the top seed in Class 2A, after knocking off defending Class A champ Blake in Friday’s Class 2A, Section 6 title game. Centennial will be the No. 2 seed in its first tournament appearance since 2008, while Hill-Murray, making its sixth straight...

The Gophers suffered another setback Saturday as the team announced guard Amir Coffey will undergo surgery on his right shoulder and miss the remainder of the season. The 6-8 guard already missed 10 games prior to Saturday’s announcement with the right shoulder injury. Coffey originally hurt the shoulder in early January, then re-injured it on a late-game dunk in the...